The Book Of Hosea. Day 30, Time To Seek The Lord

As we move on through Chapter 10 we again find the Lord foretelling disaster for those who have forsaken Him. But at the same time He invites them to turn back to Him. What the Lord desires most for all of us is that we would stay on the right path and reap the spiritual blessings of obedience. He doesn't want to discipline us but He will if He must, like any responsible father. Our ultimate good is His goal and He sends whatever is necessary to bring us to the place of spiritual blessing. In the case of the people of Hosea's day, who had forsaken the Lord for so long, the thing that would bring about their ultimate good was discipline for their sin. 

"Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances. Samaria's king will be destroyed, swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters. The high places of wickedness will be destroyed---it is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, 'Cover us!' and to the hills, 'Fall on us!'" (Hosea 10:6b-8) As we've noted before, the Lord often uses the name of the tribe of Ephraim (the largest tribe) synonymously with the name of Israel; likewise, He uses the name of the capital city, Samaria, synonymously with the name of Israel.

"Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel, and there you have remained. Will not war again overtake the evildoers in Gibeah? When I please, I will punish them; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin." (Hosea 10:9-10) The Lord uses the town of Gibeah to symbolize the lawlessness and depravity into which the people have sunk. In Judges 19 a number of the men of Gibeah surrounded the house of a man who had offered hospitality to a traveling Levite and his wife. The men demanded that the woman be sent out to them so they could all have their way with her. I assume they were threatening to kill the Levite and his host, and likely the host's entire family, if the woman was not sent out. It's possible they intended to burn the house down with them in it, but the Bible doesn't specifically say what threats the men made. The reason I assume they threatened harm on all the occupants of the house is because the Levite did hand the woman over to them (we discussed his character, or the lack thereof, when we studied the book of Judges) and the men abused and sexually assaulted her all night, resulting in her death. Many men throughout the nation came together to decide what to do about the depravity at Gibeah and they ended up demanding that the tribe of Benjamin, in which Gibeah lay, deliver up the violent offenders so justice could be carried out. 

The Benjamites refused to hand the men over and even assembled an army to fight anyone who tried to take the men into custody. This resulted in war between the soldiers of Benjamin and the soldiers of the other tribes. Thousands of men, on both sides of the war, fell on the battlefield during several days of fighting in Judges 20, but the Lord gave the victory to the men who were fighting on the side of justice. This was a sad time in the history of Israel. The sin of the wicked men of Gibeah led to civil war in the nation, and although they were punished for their sin, quite a few good men lost their lives fighting for what was right. There were women who lost their husbands or sons in this war. There were children who lost their fathers in this war. Everyone loses when there is great sin in the nation. Sin doesn't just affect the person who is sinning; it affects people close to them too.

"Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground. Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers His righteousness on you." (Hosea 10:11-12) It's more difficult for seeds to take root in unplowed (hard) ground than in softened ground that has been turned by a plow. The people's hearts have grown hard against the Lord and He implores them to break up the unplowed ground of their hearts so seeds of righteousness can take root and spring up and become fruitful. They need to seek the Lord and, when they do, He will rain down spiritual blessings like rain falling on seeds planted in a field. He will make the fruitful vines of their hearts even more fruitful.

The Lord rewards our efforts to form a relationship with Him. Our human efforts are so puny but His power is so mighty! As the saying goes, "Little is much when God is in it," and if we will just soften our hearts toward Him and seek His presence He will pour out abundant spiritual blessings upon us. The Lord always outgives us! He remembers that He made us from the dust and He knows our strength is small but He honors our willingness to submit ourselves to Him by showering us with the type of spiritual blessings that help us produce more and more good fruit.